


('Cause I've Always Known) How The Story Ends

by everyperfectsummer



Series: Tumblr Prompts [33]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Multi, don't worry guys, i'm in an angsty mood, it ends up ok, so have some insecure!Mick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 15:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10539774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyperfectsummer/pseuds/everyperfectsummer
Summary: Prompt: Insecure about their place in the relationship. coldflashwaveTaken from the Mick for All prompt list!





	

**Author's Note:**

> Mick thinks negative things about himself because other people are saying so many bad things about him that he’s starting to believe them. He is an unreliable narrator, as all my narrators are. Please remember this!

Mick’s not sure how it starts, noticing that he doesn’t quite. Fit in, exactly, with his partners. Maybe it’s with the Legends, when Rip tells him that he was only ever there because they needed Len. Maybe it’s all the little jibes that comes after, about how he’s dumb. Brutish. Nothing but a thug, when Barry’s a _hero_ and Len, for all that he’s been right beside Mick for all these years, has never really been cut from the same cloth.

 

He’s not sure how it starts. But once he starts noticing, he can’t stop. The Legends insult him so much he starts to believe them, the Flash crew never cared for him in the first place, and Lisa. Lisa, who he helped raise, Lisa, who had told him the life stories of all her dolls so often that he still remembers them, Lisa’s the one who brings by an action figure set, of the Flash and his enemies, featuring Barry facing down his arch-nemesis, Captain Cold. Some of the other Rogues - Hartley, Mardon - are included, but Mick’s not. So while Len and Barry stage mock fights with their dolls, and leave them in increasingly ridiculous poses all over the place, Mick sits, and watches, and drinks his beer, wondering if they even notice that he’s not participating.

 

Then, and this cuts the deepest, there’s the giant team up where Mick being _right there_ didn’t stop Barry from being ready to die, to join Len. Because Mick can’t compete with Len, even when Len’s _gone._ He’s not an equal partner to the others, not really, and even if the other two haven’t consciously realized that yet, they will, eventually. Will realize that he doesn’t bring anything to the relationship, not intelligence, not kindness, not anything but brute strength - and what do they need that for, a speedster and a supervillain?

 

Mick’s not dumb, for all that everyone thinks he is. He knows that he was useful to Len, once. The muscle to Len’s mouth, the backup Len needed before Len’s brains could make a reputation for the two of them. It’s understandable that Len would’ve wanted to make them a package deal, understandable that Barry would’ve accepted him just to get Len. But now Barry _has_ Len, and Len has power, and neither of them need him anymore, so why haven’t they kicked him out yet? Kindness? Lust? Worse, _pity?_

 

Whatever the explanation is, he doesn’t want to hear it, and so he makes the decision for them before they have to make it for themselves, clearing his stuff out of their apartment one night while Barry and Len are both caught up in a heist, on opposite sides. Mick finds himself wondering, bitterly, whether they’ll even notice he’s gone.

 

He’s sitting in a hotel in Keystone when a red streak bursts through the wall, slows, and slams into the opposite wall. He’d guessed they’d find him, but not quite this fast.

 

“Ow, ow, ohmygod my _nose,_ ” Barry says, blood running down his fingers as thet pinch his nose shut in an all too familiar scene (Barry’s great at running really fast. Deaccelerating in time to not hit things? Not so much). Mick’s heart constricts, as he looks at the idiotic, clumsy, brilliant man he’s fallen in love with.

 

“You ok, love?” he asks, berating himself for the use of “love” as soon as it’s slipped past his lips.

 

“Me?” Barry says, blood flow already stopped. “ _I’m_ fine. What’s wrong with you?” He sounds honestly concerned, brown eyes wide and worried, and Mick has no idea why.

 

“I left you a note, explaining why I left.”

 

Barry’s face flushes. “I thought you were acting under duress of some sort, not that you meant it!”

 

Mick just stares back at him, like the dumb animal he is, not sure what to say.

 

Barry shakes his head. “I need to get Len for this.” With that, he vanishes in a streak of red light, only to reappear, holding Len in his arms. He sets Len down gingerly, and the two of them turn to face Mick.

 

“So _o_ ,” Len says. “How ‘bout you tell us why you left, Mick.” The words are harsh, the tone is crisp, but something in Len’s eyes are hurt. Mick feels like an idiot. Of course Len’s upset. He’s always hated people leaving him, ever since his mom left. Even though he doesn’t really love Mick, he’s still going to be sad Mick left, just because of the leaving. Everyone knows how he reacts to people skipping out on heists, and those are just - “Mick, please.” He’s cut of from his train of thought by Barry’s plea.

 

He shrugs. “You two don’t need me. Figured I’d get out while the getting was good.”

 

Barry’s eyes are wide, and suddenly damp. “Of course we don’t need you, Mick.” It hurts, more than he could possibly have imagined, to hear that spelled out.

 

“We _want_ you.” His heart, which had fallen through his stomach, starts rising again. “That’s the whole point, Mick. We could live without you, just like you and me could live without Len or you two without me, but we don’t want to, we want _you._ Please.”

 

Len’s already crossed the room, so that he’s standing halfway between Barry and Mick, arm outstretched in Mick’s direction. “I know I’ve abandoned you a lot,” he says, softly, “so I can understand if you don’t want me to be around anymore.” It’s the most hurt he’s heard Len sound since he had to kill his dad. “But, Mick? I will always want you around.”

 

Mick brings his hand up to wipe his cheek, and realizes that he’s started crying.

 

“What can we do to prove it to you?” Barry asks, doe eyes desperately staring at Mick.

 

Len waves his hands expansively. “Money, heists, leaving the Legends - name it, it’s yours.”

 

If Mick were the sort of person who could afford to show nervous ticks, he’d be biting his lip right now. Instead, he stretches his hand out to meet Len’s, and feels instantly reassured by the warmth he finds there. “I don’t know,” he says, helplessly.

 

Suddenly, in a blur of movement, Barry’s sped across the room and is hugging him, both of their tears mingling on their shirts, Mick still holding Len’s hand.

 

“That’s ok,” Barry tells him, voice full of the certainty only heroes can muster. “We’ll find a way.”

 

“I promise you, Mick," Len squeezes his hand, and suddenly Mick has that certainty, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I am up for prompts because I need help ignoring my irl responsibilities, so help enable my procrastination by leaving me prompts below, please and thank!


End file.
